Hello from Hays, KS!


Past few days have finally seen some action for VORTEX2. Yesterday, we drove north from Woodward to Hays. On the way we stopped to do some calibration of instruments. Essentially we pulled off on the side of the road to check the readings from all of our thermometers to detect any biases. After checking everything out, we finished up our drive north. Once in Hays we kicked off our cinco de mayo celebrations right with a few margaritas and mexican food at a great little restaurant near the hotel.

instrument testing in Kansas

Today was our first operations day. A low pressure system and warm front set up over northern Kansas. After a day of uncertainty sitting in the parking lot at the hotel, the steering committee finally decided on a target to the northwest, rather than a target farther to our east. We drove up to WaKeeney, KS and saw some storms going up towards the Nebraska border around dusk. We managed to intercept a weak supercell with small (quarter-sized) hail and frequent lightning. Despite good wind shear, there wasn't much hope for tornadoes because the low-level air was too cool and dry. However, the fleet didn't get away unscathed. Probes 2 and 7 ended up getting stuck on dirt farm roads that become flooded out. The rest of us headed back to Hays while they were being rescued by local farmers and their probes were winched out by some of the more hardy vehicles in the armada. At the time of this writing, they still hadn't returned to the hotel (1 AM). Our probe managed to avoid the mess because our mission put us on some drier and better-paved roads. It's fortunate though that neither of the stuck probes was in the path of anything dangerous!

In front of the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV), from the discovery channel show

The hotel parking lot in Hays, KS. Notice the DOWs are with us now.

The next two days should be travel/down days as there isn't much of a chance for severe weather in our domain. It looks like we'll be travelling south again, maybe to the Texas panhandle. Sunday-Wednesday look very very good for severe weather. The storm prediction center back in Norman has already forecasted that Monday has the potential to be an outbreak day with a chance for very large hail and significant tornadoes. So after a quiet first week, we should be very busy next week! I'll try to post more in the upcoming days, and have more pictures of weather.... I'm waiting to stop by a bigger town with a Best Buy so I can buy a nicer camera!